Weighty Matters

This was our wee girlie at 5 months.  People used to say, "Oh, she's so fine and dainty."

Actually, she was kind of skinny, but always content and smiley. 

Now, at ten months, she's filled out a bit.  We did kind of like her when she was so 'fine', but chubby is pretty cute, too.  :)

Photo shoots can be pretty exhausting...

And then there's Thomas, our skinny man. At 32 lbs he's actually at an average weight for his age, but considering that he is nearly the height of a four-year-old, he's getting sort of long and thin looking.  Hmm...wonder who he gets that from?!

                     

He is a high-energy kid, so although he eats well, he runs it all off.

A while ago I finished reading the book, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan.  This got me thinking  about food again - good, wholesome food.  It's just what I needed to help us get back on track after allowing more and more processed foods on our table. Despite a very evolutionist slant, this book has some good insights about (real) food and nutrition and I think it is a book that everyone could benefit from reading.

One thing I'm aiming to cut back on is bread.  Why bread?  Well, for one thing, three of us can't eat regular bread, so there's always the issue of substituting with gluten-free bread.  We make it ourselves, but still it is expensive and unless it's very fresh it doesn't taste that great. The bigger reason to avoid bread is what's in it, and I don't mean the gluten.  Have you ever looked at the ingredient list on a loaf of bread...even a 'good-quality' one? I counted 15  - and half of them are chemicals.  'Real' bread only needs about 5 or so.  We don't bake our own wheat bread because of the risk of contamination with gluten.  So...what to do for lunch?  I think we've found a solution, at least for now.  We still have bread, but much less of it. Three times a week we make a very large pot of soup.  This, along with some eggs or supper left-overs makes a very satisfying lunch.  It's easier, too. Working together, it only takes us about 10 minutes to prepare the soup.  One large pot will last us for at least two meals, so the second day we just have to heat it up and serve it - much less work than making sandwiches for 11 people.  This way we're also avoiding those sugar-laden sandwich spreads and highly processed sandwich meats, too.

Another book that I've learned a lot from, and keep going back to, is Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.  If you are interesting in cooking wholesome food from scratch, this might be the book you are looking for. I wouldn't want to be without my copy.